By Bill Downing, MassCann

Dear Daily Times Chronicle editors,

A small cadre of legislators who didn’t like a new law just passed by a vote of our citizenry, have changed the law by side-stepping our legislative process. Seven of our two-hundred legislators met “informally”, which sounds so much better than what it really is – meeting secretly, manipulating what is supposed to be our democratic system, weakening a law passed less than two months earlier by a vote of the people.

One might think to one’s self, “Self – what need could be so pressing that legislators would feel justified cheating our democratic process?”, and, “What need could be so urgent that the voters’ expressed will is to be ignored less than two months after that expression?” Legislators used their cheat and blocked the voters’ will to delay retail cannabis store sales by six months and to make growing hemp in Massachusetts very difficult.

Hard to believe, but true. These legislators are willing to pull BS shenanigans and sully their reputations just to stop hemp farming and for a six-month delay in retail cannabis. What are their arguments for doing this? What about hearings? There are none. There don’t have to be arguments or hearings or input or compromise. When the decision is made in secret by a small cadre, there is none of that.

These legislators sold their moral obligations off for a very low price. We are left to only imagine what they will do for real money. The names of the legislators who did this are:
Senator Stanley Rosenberg
Stanley.Rosenberg@masenate.gov
617 722-1500
Senator Bruce Tarr
Bruce.Tarr@masenate.gov
617 722-1600
Senator John Keenan
John.Keenan@masenate.gov
617 722-1494
Rep. Paul Donato
Paul.Donato@mahouse.gov
617 722-2180
Rep. Paul McMurtry
Paul.McMurtry@mahouse.gov
617 722-2582
Rep. Louis Kafka
Luis.Kafka@mahouse.gov
617 722-2430
Rep. Donald Wong
Donald.Wong@mahouse.gov
617 722-2080

Whether you readers supported Question #4 or not – you, no doubt, support our democratic process. These legislators should be contacted and told that by-passing our legislature to alter the expressed will of the voters is wrong. They should be ashamed of themselves.

(331 words)
Bill Downing
14 Avon St.
Reading, MA 01867-3632
(617) 834-8746